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CHAPTER THREENew Materials on Former Gestapo OfficersGestapo officers, who also held ranks in the SS, were in the U.S. ArmyCounterintelligence Corps’s automatic arrest category after the war. Initially,the CIC viewed them as security threats because they could arrange continuedclandestine resistance against the occupation. Later, CIC used former Gestapoofficers to garner useful intelligence for the postwar period on everything fromGerman right-wing movements to underground communist organizations.Intelligence officers often overlooked the significant role Gestapo officers playedin the murder of Jews, POWs, and the political enemies of the Nazis.More than 25 years ago Allan A. Ryan, author of the 1983 official U.S.Government study of the Klaus Barbie case, noted that a growing number ofGestapo personnel were released from U.S. captivity in 1946 and 1947 and “theirapparent use grew, although to what extent is uncertain.” 1 The newly releasedrecords provide a much fuller picture regarding the American use of Gestapoofficers. The CIC went to some lengths to protect certain persons from justice.The following cases are representative.Rudolf Mildner’s Escape from JusticeRudolf Mildner was originally arrested as part of a search for Nazi officials whomight lead an underground Nazi resistance. On May 21, 1945, the Counter-35

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